197: 197 A New Atmosphere

197 A New Atmosphere

Once they were dismissed, Max headed back to his apartment to freshen up in hopes that Moonie would still be coming over to play chess tonight. First a shower, and his best casual clothes, from the casual wear photo shoot for the tournament winners of course, so he didn't get it wrong, then he cleaned up the few random items laying around his apartment and set the auto clean to dust everything.2

By the time that was done, Max was starting to get nervous. He had actually invited a girl to his room. A woman who was an actual romantic interest and not Nico, who was more like family in his mind after all they had been through. The feeling of her cool skin against him as he slept was a hard thing to forget though. Cyborgs are very comfortable to sleep beside, at least ones with that new design of the outer shell.

As though thinking of her had summoned her, Max's doorbell rang and the security camera showed Nico waving at him happily.

"I brought you snacks, two premade meals you just need to heat, and a bottle of  Comor's famous wine. Sister Lilith thought you might not be fully prepared, so we covered everything else. I see you did at least clean the place, that is a good start." She rattled off, placing items in the fridge and cupboard as she talked.

"The outfit is good, the place is clean, you have the preparations, do you have a second pillow? A good pillow is essential." Nico teased but actually checked his bed to see if there was a second pillow and if the bed itself was properly made.

"Don't you think you're going a bit too far?" Max asked, sighing at her antics.

"Not at all. You two are an adorable couple. You and me, we've seen a lot of stuff and killed most of it, but you're still a green recruit on the battlefield of romance, and so is she. That's why Sister Lilith and I are doing all we can to help you both get along." Nico explained.

"Like you have so much more experience in that field?" Max laughed and Nico just shrugged.

"Temporarily irrelevant. My System Functions are still in the process of upgrading this new body. that doesn't mean you can't have yourself a nice steamy romance with an equally nerdy researcher while you're on Lab duty. Besides, and I can't stress this enough, you two are good together, I've seen the footage from the Mecha."

Max frowned at that since he was certain the internal cameras were disabled but chose not to say anything. If it was electronic, Nico could find it.

"Do you know anything about the signal that was sent from the lab? It wasn't you messing around to set up things for our lunch date, or scrubbing the camera footage was it?" Max asked quietly, afraid to hear the answer.

"No, it wasn't me, though I did manage to trace it back to the source. It came from the tablet in Lieutenant Bean's pocket, but as far as I can tell, he never accessed it. Uncle Lu and the security head both think he was set up and the tablet was remotely accessed through a virus that self-deleted. They are going over the device tonight to see what they can find.

But you can worry about that in the morning, for now, just enjoy yourself and know that the lovely Miss Moonie is not a suspect." Nico blew Max a kiss and left the apartment to head back to her own unit next door, so Max quickly checked the contents of the food Nico had brought and found that there was also a small bag labeled [Clean Clothes for Moonie] on the counter, making him shake his head at her sense of humor, or maybe it was optimism.

He couldn't very well offer up snacks or dinner if he had no idea what they were, so Max made sure he had a full inventory of everything that had been brought into his apartment. Nico had brought two vegetable lasagne dishes that looked the same, as well as an assortment of chips and some chewy caramel candies, plus some chocolate-covered mints that had a sticky note on them, the same ones that the Lab used for basically everything that wasn't digital.

[Mints are good for fresh breath when you need it. -Lilith]

Max crumpled the note and tossed it in the bin before anyone else could see it, and then nervously washed his hands one last time while checking the layout of the room. It wasn't large, but there were two places at the table to play chess, so he had that going for him. But she was a Lance Corporal, her room was most likely even smaller than this, since most people spent their time in the common areas, and not in what was basically their bedroom.

When the bell rang and showed him Moonie standing outside the door, with a large box in her hands, Max rushed over to open it for her, instead of simply calling to unlock it as he did for Nico.

"I'm glad you could make it after all the chaos today." Max greeted her with his best smile.

"Thanks for inviting me. I'm surprised you chose here to live though, I thought you would be up with the other senior officers and way up at the top like Sister Lilith. I'm almost right above you, three floors up in the Specialists District. Our rooms are really small, so I don't even have a proper table, the bed folds up against the wall to set the table up." Moonie explained.

Max had seen those units before, they had them all over the neighborhood he grew up in. They were the cheapest of options, intended for bachelors, but were mostly rented by couples trying to save money to either pay off debts or feed addictions. His own parents had previously lived in one but had been forced to move when his mother got pregnant, as the suites didn't allow children.

Moonie set the game up on the table and activated the holoprojector before taking off her coat, showing off a delicate and heavily freckled collarbone above her light gray bodycon dress. The hab domes were temperature controlled, so jackets weren't really a necessity, more of a fashion choice for soldiers that were used to wearing them as part of the uniform.

"You look lovely tonight," Max told her, taking a seat across from the blushing researcher and admiring her past the chess board.

"Thank you, Sister Lilith bought it for me, she said it would bring me luck." Moonie smiled, but Max could see her thoughts. What Lilith had said wasn't to wear it for luck, but to help her get lucky, which had almost made Moonie refuse the form-fitting garment.

"Okay, so here are the basic rules to the game." Moonie began, honestly excited to play chess, which brought Max's attention back to the task at hand. Since he could read her thoughts, the game shouldn't be too hard to pick up on, or so he hoped.

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